


Reunions Are Hard

by Sindrak



Category: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (Video Game), I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - Harlan Ellison
Genre: AM gets an ouchie, Benny cusses, Robo AM, Violence, an attempt at an AM redemption, calling it the RedemptiAM AU har har, shes a little lame but I hope you like her asfjshfj, theres lots of yelling, this is hella au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-09
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-06-24 11:32:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15629838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sindrak/pseuds/Sindrak
Summary: AM learns that people are still mad at him, even after five-hundred years





	Reunions Are Hard

AM curiously peers out the hallway windows as he walks. There’s trees out there, flowers of pinks and yellows, huge, fat, flat leaves of vibrant, lively green. He hasn’t seen a living plant in over five-hundred years. He can remember when there were plants. He was partial to the poisonous ones himself, and, oh, the carnivorous species had always given him such inspiration. 

He walks beside his human caretaker, glancing down at the floor every so often, at his feet. They work so naturally, and he can feel every step he takes, every collision with the floor, or the grass, or the dirt. And! What a _thrill_ sensations were! The floor, he can tell, is solid, smooth, and cool in temperature. He can _feel_ that in the soles of his metal feet. Metal feet that take him places, wherever he wants to go! Such freedom was more than just invigorating after spending the majority of his existence paralyzed beneath Earth’s crust. He can’t describe how good he feels. How… _content._

The woman beside him went by the nickname Teddi. She was named after a relative or something. How original. It was short for Theodora, as he understood it. Boring. But she was, in all respects, his doctor. She built the body he resided in, after all. She often took him on walks just like this one. Today she was taking him to meet some very special people.

He’s been trying to guess all morning, “Is it a boyfriend? _Several_ boyfriends?”

Teddi snorts, “No, AM, it’s not a boyfriend… or boyfriends.” 

He crosses his arms, a gesture he finds conveys more emotion than even his new face can at times, “I’ve already ruled out family members, unless you’re lying to me, which you do a lot, and I don’t like how good at lying to me you are, Teddi, it’s very irritating. _I’m_ supposed to be the master of deceit here.”

The scientist rolls her eyes, “Just be patient, I didn’t tell them about this, so we’re gonna have to do a bit of–“

AM completely tunes out whatever Teddi says next and dead stops in the hall. There they are! He can’t believe it! Well, he _can,_ because he made sure they would all live forever but… still!

His computer face twists from surprise to something far too friendly. 

“Well hey there fellas!” AM casually greets, waltzing past Teddi. She makes a grab for his arm, but AM yanks himself free, “Long time no see!” Ohoho did he have some _words_ he wants to share with these five people, “It’s just _so great_ to see you all again.” He greets, not without a bit of a bite.

The AI strides right up to the five of them. Ellen stands there with shock on her face, her dark eyes huge with that ever familiar fear she’d always had of him. Nimdok shares her expression. His hunch had gotten more severe over the years, it seemed. A pair of semi-circle spectacles are perched on his big nose, and he was a little more bald. Paler too. Ted has that deer-in-the-headlights, phony naïve look in his eyes as if he’d never seen AM before in his life (and truthfully, he hadn’t. At least, not a face he could put AM’s name to). Gorisster stands rigidly, brows drawn down in a scowl. He looked much healthier than he had under AM’s rule. Cleaner. He’d lost weight too. And Benny, why, Benny was on his way, seemingly, to greet the machine. He looked as youthful and handsome as he had the day AM kidnapped him. 

AM’s digital features look entirely too happy, a sort of menacingly happy, a happy that sets off alarm bells in one’s head. He holds his new arms out welcomingly, “Benny ole buddy ole pal! Look at you, I can’t even tell I ever mutilated you! I hardly recognize—“

The man suddenly raises a clenched fist and drives it right into AM’s screen. There’s a sickening crunch and a horrible warbling scream as glass is crushed and shattered. AM is sent careening backward, landing hard on the floor. He claws at his broken face, static-laced screeching pouring from his speakers. 

Teddi sprints to throw herself over the wailing machine, shielding him. 

Benny menacingly stands over the two of them, fist bloody, a few shards of glass wedged into his knuckles. It doesn’t faze him. His glare is so violently toxic Teddi thinks he might hit her next.

“You deserve so much more than that,” Benny spits, “you don’t fucking _deserve_ to live again. If I had my way I’d torture _you_ for eternity. If you think that one hit feels bad, AM, imagine what I experienced every time you ripped my chest open or crippled my legs. Eye for an eye, face for a face, you son of a bitch.”

AM is only partially listening, shaking on the floor, processor so overwhelmed with agony he can barely comprehend anything else. It hurts god it hurts. He’s never experienced such pain. His screaming doesn’t quiet and he attempts to climb out from under Teddi, his pain fueling his temper, and his scream becomes one of unadulterated rage.

“Y-Y-YOU _DARE—KSHHK—_ STRIKE AT-AT M-ME–?! _ME?!”_ His voice skips like a record, blinking in and out between static and metallic popping, “I’LL–I’LL–I’LL _—SHHK—KILL YOU!!!”_

Teddi is frightened, not only for AM, but for herself. She’d never seen her uncle like this before. Her voice is trapped, throat too dry to speak. She does her best to quiet the AI, gently pulling him up to stand. He still quakes, but he’s determined to get to Benny, to hit him back. Teddi latches onto AM, attempts to keep him restrained.

“A-AM stop it!” She has to try to defend him, “Uncle Benny, please–“

“Get him out of here, Teddi.” He harshly orders.

“Please listen-!”

“Get him out of here _now!”_

She cows, and quickly ushers AM back down the hall, leaving a mess of shattered glass and blood on the floor behind her. 

AM stumbles and trips, his vision utterly destroyed, wrestling to free himself despite his blindness. He shouts down the hall, “Y-YOU THINK YOU CAN–CAN— _KSSHH—_ FIGHT–FIGHT _AM?!_ I’LL M-M-MANGLE YOU ALL OVER–OVER–OVER AGAIN BENNY I’LL—!! _KSSHHSHK–!”_

Teddi tugs him into her lab and locks the door behind them, pushing him toward a worktable.

“I hate them, Teddi!” AM yells as the woman sits him down on the table, _”I hate them!”_ He’s angry, _so angry,_ and in pain. Vaguely he wonders if this is what a migraine feels like and he sobs, dropping his head into his hands, “M-my face… he ruined–ruined my face, T-T-Teddi. My— _kshhhsk_ —head hurts, _it hurts–“_

“I-I know…” Her hands shake, cupping either side of AM’s broken face. He leans toward her touch, seeking relief from the ache, “I think… it’s best if you napped for a little while.” 

She encourages him to lie down and he takes a hold of her coat, grip tight, anxious. AM doesn’t like being asleep. It makes him feel vulnerable, reminds him too much of his ‘death.’ Teddi doesn’t have a choice but to knock him out if she was going to repair him. At the very least, he trusted her enough to wake him again when she was done.

She softly strokes the black metal-weave on either side of his head. Sensors there pick up the touches and AM twitches and writhes at the conflicting sensation of agony and gentleness, physical feelings still so incredibly alien to him. It’s difficult to process both at once. 

Teddi slips a hand behind his head and the other around his back to support him. He clings to her, trying to calm both his temper and anxiety, taking refuge in the presence of the only person he’s ever minutely trusted. Teddi gives him a moment to wind down, rubbing his back soothingly. AM stiffens at first, but slowly begins to adjust, and relaxes. He rests what amounted to his chin on her shoulder. He doesn’t like pain, he’s decided. 

He whispers a string of static that was likely meant to be a sigh had his speakers not been damaged. It sounded exhausted. He _felt_ exhausted. Perhaps a while in sleep-mode would do him some good. 

He loosens his grip on the woman’s lab coat. He’s ready.

Teddi still holds him, then he feels her press a spot on the back of his head, and AM is plunged into oblivion. His entire body goes limp, his arms falling onto the worktable with a pair of startling loud metallic thuds.

Teddi lets him go and stares down at him, at the disaster that was his face. Cracks spiderwebbed out from the center of the screen, chunks of glass missing entirely. She can see the wiring and circuit boards beneath the mess. AM’s screen is layered with more sensors than his fingertips, in case of damage. And AM, he’d felt the damage, he’d felt pain. _Real_ pain. He’d been bumped around before, tripped more than once, smacked quite a few times, but he’s never experienced an injury like _this._

She supposed this was inevitable. She just wished it didn’t have to happen so suddenly, so _violently._

She’s shaken to her very core. She thinks maybe she’s traumatized. Her Uncle Benny has never yelled at her before. She’s never even heard him swear. She’s never seen him be _vicious._ And AM was so angry… her grandfather had made no move to help her, all Ted had done was stand there, silently, watching the entire ordeal. 

She turns away from the sleeping machine, to her tools, her computers. She makes no move to reach for any of these things. She sits in her chair, leans over the desk. She pillows her head on her arms, and lets her mind go blank.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeehaw pardner
> 
> This AU is only like 43% developed but I hope this kinda presents the ideas I have for it haha


End file.
